Mijdrecht

Mijdrecht is a town in the Netherlands with about 16,000 residents. It is located in the municipality of De Ronde Venen, about 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of the main A2 motorway, between Utrecht and Amsterdam.

The main street is the Dorpstraat, where most shops and the municipal offices are located. There is a police office, a fire department, 6 supermarkets, sport facilities, and a coffee shop. There is no police or doctor at the weekends.

In 1085 the parish of Mijdrecht, together with those of Wilnis, Tamen, Zevenhoven en Kudelstaart, was granted to the Deaconate of St. John (Proosdij van Sint-Jan), by Conrad, the Prince-bishop of Utrecht, in return for a depot in the Holland-Utrecht border region and the guarantee that the deaconate would develop the rugged terrain for habitation. 1085 is the year taken as the founding of the municipality of Mijdrecht.

In 1815, soon after the French-Batavian period, the mayor of Mijdrecht, Hendrikus Abraham van Doorn van Noordscharwoude, submitted a questionnaire to the Minister of War. The questionnaire, about local conditions, reported a population of 3,000, including 5 carpenters, 2 smiths, 1 brazier, 2 brick-layers, 6 bakers, 8 tailors, and 6 cobblers.

Most parts of the town (like Hofland-Noord and Molenland) were built after 1980.

In 1989 the municipality of Mijdrecht was merged into De Ronde Venen.

The city has continued to grow through "Wickelhof I and II" expansions.

During the early 20th Century, Mijdrecht was a growing community. In 1925, the then-municipality of Mijdrecht had a population of 4,506, which grew to 4,618 in 1940. In 1950, the population of the municipality had grown to 5,379. In 1988, the last year that Mijdrecht was a separate municipality, the municipality population was 16,414.